Their case stems from the cap penalties doled out to the Cowboys and Redskins back in 2011

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As you might remember, there was no salary cap in place for the 2010 NFL season.

Only, the NFL Players Association contends, there kind of was.

The NFLPA contends that the league’s 32 owners colluded to set a secret cap that year, as evidenced by severe cap punishments dished out to the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins for front-loading contracts that offseason. It certainly makes sense: After all, how could the Cowboys and Redskins have committed cap violations when there was no cap?

On the other side of things, the league will point to the wording of the collective bargaining agreement struck back in 2011, which says players cannot sue the league using the so-called Reggie White lawsuit, which served as a guiding light for labor relations in the NFL from 1993 to, you guessed it, 2011.

U.S. District Judge David Doty rejected the players’ request to reopen that lawsuit in order to sue the NFL for collusion, so beginning on Tuesday, the case is headed to appeals court. But, as these things tend to go, the process is plodding along slowly. According to R.B. Fallstrom of Yahoo! Sports, a ruling is not expected “for a few months.”

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